STREET JOURNAL 84: GOODBYE, DAYS OF WINE & ROSES… by THB3

life is just so goddamned ridiculous sometimes that it`s not even worth complaining;
just laugh and drink your beers and forget about it…

THB3
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“so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens”

William Carlos Williams
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“In sorrow we must go, but not in despair. Behold! We are not bound forever to the circles of this world, and beyond them is more than memory…”

J.R.R. Tolkien
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“To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.

Every night and every morn
Some to misery are born,
Every morn and every night
Some are born to sweet delight.

Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to endless night.

We are led to believe a lie
When we see not thro’ the eye,
Which was born in a night to perish in a night,
When the soul slept in beams of light.

God appears, and God is light,
To those poor souls who dwell in night;
But does a human form display
To those who dwell in realms of day.”

William Blake
Auguries of Innocence
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“Only those who attempt the absurd
will achieve the impossible.”

M.C. Escher
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“If you haven`t found something strange
during the day,
it hasn`t been much of a day.”

John Wheeler
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“It is far from simple to show the truth,
yet the truth is simple.”

“I am the mechanical eye that reveals the
world to you as only I alone am able to see it.”

“Everybody who cares for his art
seeks the essence of his own technique.”

Dziga Vertov
Pioneer experimental filmmaker

His name is translated as Spinning Top
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“There was never a genius
without a tincture of madness.”

Aristotle
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“Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.”

William Shakespeare
Hamlet
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“that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought or feeling, can pre­serve a life beyond the grave; that all the labors of the ages, all the de­votion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system; and the whole temple of Man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins …”
Bertrand Russell

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“…since a three-dimensional object casts a two-dimensional shadow, we should be able to imagine the unknown four-dimensional object, whose shadow we are. I, for my part, am fascinated by the search for a one-dimensional object that casts no shadow at all.”

Marcel Duchamp (Thanks to my friend @democracyofobjects on Instagram for introducing me to this particular quote…)

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“Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.”

Mark Twain

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On writing a personal journal….

“DOUBLETHINK. For the first time the magnitude of what he had undertaken came home to him. How could you communicate with the future? It was of its nature impossible. Either the future would resemble the present, in which case it would not listen to him: or it would be different from it, and his predicament would be meaningless.”

George Orwell

1984

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“I don`t listen to what art critics say. I don`t know anybody who needs a critic to find out what art is.”

Jean-Michel Basquiat

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“What is that you express in your eyes? It seems to me more than all the print I have read in my life.”

Walt Whitman

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“Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.”

Frank Zappa

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“Shall our blood fail? Or shall it come to be The blood of paradise? And shall the earth Seem all of paradise that we shall know?

Death is the mother of beauty…”

Wallace Stevens Sunday Morning

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PAPER LANTERNS HANGING IN THE BLUE NIGHT, SWINGING IN THE WIND, MYSTERIOUS SYMBOLS CASTING THEIR LIGHT…

THB3 12/28/14

Goes with my photo, Paper Lanterns 2 on Instagram…

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“I must create a system, or be enslaved in another man`s. I will not reason and compare; my business is to create.”

William Blake

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“When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.”

Jonathan Swift Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting

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“I need to produce great ideas, and I believe that if I were commissioned to design a new universe, I would be mad enough to undertake it.”

Giovanni Battista Piranesi

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DIS PLOFESSIONAR ENGRISH SKOOR! YOU FORROW CULLICURUM!!!

Rs and Ls, baby, Rs and Ls… 🙂

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The past is a gathering of ghosts in a black and white slideshow flickering on an ancient movie projector inside my skull; The sound fades slowly away, like a distant antique radio playing an old song…

THB3

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“The idea is not to live forever, it is to create something that will.”

“I have lived 80 years of life and know nothing for it, but to be resigned and tell myself that flies are born to be eaten by spiders and man to be devoured by sorrow.”

Voltaire

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“And from that time on I bathed in the Poem Of The Sea, star-infused and churned into milk, Devouring the green azures; where, entranced in pallid flotsam, A dreaming drowned man sometimes goes down…”

Arthur Rimbaud

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“For any event, there is an infinite number of possible outcomes. Our choices determine which outcomes will follow. There is a theory in quantum physics; that all possibilities that can happen, do happen in alternate quantum realities.”

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“Sirius rises late in the dark, liquid sky
On summer nights, star of stars,
Orion’s Dog they call it, brightest
Of all, but an evil portent, bringing heat
And fevers to suffering humanity.”

Homer The Iliad

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“No one lives forever. Not even the immortal.”

“You are the creators and the curators of your own lives. You create your own life and your work. Give us your best. Give us the best of your art. We crave it. We hunger for it. Help us to see ourselves, to know ourselves. Illuminate our lives.”

Leonard Nimoy R.I.P 2/27/15

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Let me tell you a parable, I once heard…

One day a scorpion was walking beside a river. The river had a strong current and he had no way to get across. He came upon a fox and he asked the fox, “If I climb upon your back, will you swim me across the river?” The fox thought for a very short moment and answered, “Oh no, then you would sting me and I would drown.” The scorpion gave a swift answer, “No, I wouldn`t do that. Then we would both drown.” The fox considered this and then decided to allow it. The scorpion climbed on the fox`s back and the fox began to swim across the river. About halfway across, the fox felt a sharp jab and a pain in his back and he realized that the scorpion had indeed stung him. As they both began to sink in the rushing waters of the river, the fox looked at the scorpion and gasped, “Why did you do that?!?” And the scorpion answered, “Because it is my nature.”

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“Though lovers be lost, love shall not; And death shall have no dominion.”

Dylan Thomas

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“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I`m not sure about the former.”

Albert Einstein

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“What could I say to you that would be of value, except that perhaps you seek too much, that as a result of your seeking you cannot find.”

“People think I’m a miserable sod but it’s only because I get asked such bloody miserable questions.”

“If you look around, complacency is the great disease of your autumn years, and I work hard to prevent that.”

Nick Cave
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“Do not go gentle into that good night,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light…”

Dylan Thomas
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“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

Leonardo da Vinci
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My Short List of Future Business Ideas for Japan:

1. One bite only, hot mini-pizzas (¥600: believe me, they`ll pay it!)

2. Train to Nowhere (One-way only rides to the end of the line somewhere in the mountains. There would be NOTHING there. Get out. Try to find your way home or just stay there and die or get mauled by a bear)

‘Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.’

Mary Oliver
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4/18/15

Chiharu and I went on an awesome urban adventure today. I can say with certainty that Asakusa is most definitely one of the coolest areas of Tokyo. Shibuya, Shinjuku, and Roppongi are for nighttime madness and partying with the younger kids and the crazy crowd. Shinagawa and Shinbashi are great for architectural photography and skyscrapers. Akihabara is the place for electronics and Manga, if you`re into that shit. BUT…..Asakusa is really a slice of old Tokyo, which is rapidly disappearing in the face of the looming imminence of the 2020 Olympics. The streets are often what could be called shitamachi , which basically means winding old-school streets. There are tons of cool little izakaya places (small informal beer, sake and food bars). Also there is a lot of delicious street food and chairs and tables right out on the street, perfect for people watching, eating, smoking and drinking. We found a back street in a weekend-only Yakuza horserace betting area and we had some beers and ume-shu (plum wine). Along with some delicious food, this was a perfect way to while away the hours on a sunny, windy Saturday afternoon. We ate gyu-suji no niko mi (Japanese beef and tofu stew in an amazing broth). We also had kakiage (vegetable tempura), yakitori (bbq grilled chicken on a stick), and menchikatsu (deep fried ground beef burger) with karashi (spicy yellow mustard). There was more, but I can`t remember the names of everything. It was all just too good. An awesome day all around….not only was it an adventure in the present sense, but it also seemed like a bit of time travel, a trip into the past….
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“Moving without motion,
Screaming without sound
across an open ocean,
Lying there on temporary ground…”

Jack White
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I actually once took a photo in Japan of a sign that said “JAPANESE ONLY.”
Now, of course, this is totally ridiculous and xenophobic and racist, but I laughed anyway…
This is an example of my angry monologue rant to ANYONE who treats me with even a hint of foreigner dislike or disrespect….(TOTAL sarcasm, ALL of it…exaggerated voice and a lot of extreme hand gestures and waving around of the arms; this type of behavior alarms the Japanese)
“Awwwwww, sumimasen…
Watashi wa gaijin desu yo! Gomenne, sumimasen!”
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THE GOOD OLD DAYS ARE LONG GONE, PEOPLE.
WELCOME TO THE FUTURE, MOTHERFUCKERS…
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May 2nd to May 6th, 2015
Chiharu and I had an EPIC road trip to Shizuoka Prefecture to the magical forgotten town of Heda, nestled there between the mountains and the sea. Also we visited the unbelievable place called Dogashima, with the green floating islands. Oh, and let`s not forget the OLD town of Shuzenji (807 A.D.) up in the mountains. It was all just too much to describe here, so I will let my photos on Flickr and Instagram do the talking and storytelling for me on this one….

Continue and see my story without words on Instagram @tomhbrooks3 …
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“I turned silences and nights into words.
What was unutterable, I wrote down.
I made the whirling world stand still.”

“A thousand dreams within me softly burn.”

“True alchemy lies in this formula: `Your memory and
your senses are but the nourishment of your creative impulse`.”

“I is another.”

“Life is the farce we are all forced to endure.”

“The poet, therefore, is truly the thief of fire.
He is responsible for humanity, for animals even;
he will have to make sure his visions can be smelled,
fondled, listened to; if what he brings back from beyond
has form, he gives it form; if it has none, he gives it none.
A language must be found…of the soul, for the soul will
include everything: perfumes, sounds, colors,
thought grappling with thought.”

ARTHUR RIMBAUD
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“As for me, my arms are broken for having embraced the clouds…”

Charles Baudelaire
Lament of an Icarus

(goes with my photo, Les Fleurs du Mal (3) on Instagram…)
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Let me just say this…
WHY does #EVERYTHING nowadays have a goddamned #HASHTAG ?!? I mean, seriously, is this what it`s come to?! In order to get attention, you have to say #LOOKATME , I`m on
#SOCIALMEDIA !!! It`s just so #FUCKINGPATHETIC !! And yet, AND YET…I`m guilty of it too, as is everyone who uses a computer in these #STRANGEDAYS. My #INSTAGRAM page is full of `em. Thanks so much #TWITTER !! I really #WEEPFORTHEFUTURE . And one more thing… #FUCKTHISSHIT !!!!!

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“Hey Tom, what did you do last weekend?”

Tom “Oh you know, like all old men, just sat around the house drinking scotch and yelling at the TV…”
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“Every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around…”

Cameron Crowe
Vanilla Sky
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Opiate

I.

“My sickness courted
bad habits borne from
a snake’s promise of
the absence of pain.

But then
there’s always been pain
to deal with. I
saw two options:
Coca and Poppy vs. Herb and Grain
Sounds like a tag-team match
of rejected Care Bears.

Never chased dragons,
snorting and cooking
seemed as unnatural as their
alchemized mythos.

And not to the purity
such as it was
of the tiny evils done
to me by me, from the herb
or the grain.
Natural is still nature,
and nothing else kills
surer than that.

The latter appeared
a mindless time-fuck,
the former scared me into
suburban inoculation,
vaccinating me
from the methods of my heroes.

After all I had my opiate,
not the usual God or God’s
chief rep money,
they were abandoned
before they could disappoint
at the end –

It was –

Apathy, that which allows
you to put on that face and meet the
terribly loud incongruous faces of
these meat snowflakes,
angels fall,
but so do lemmings,
and for far less than
the kingdom of heaven,
so my opiate was a moat to this miasma
that came organically
for a time.

Overfed to oblivion
as to what is wanting
until a greater power changes
the conditions of existence.

II.

Sickness
not from bad habits
or a dirty world.
An attack from within,
my immunity’s thirty pieces of silver
worth of betrayal.

The betrayal forced
a break-up with herb and grain,
feeling cheated,
they rejected my advances.

With standards quelled
like a bloodless coup
and my immunity’s betrayal,
I regress to a sailor on leave,
where pain and want
surpass sense and dignity.

So out of desperation
I hooked up with Opiate.
Casually at first,
no overnighters and nothing
kept in drawers or bathrooms.
It was refreshing,
dangerous.

Opiate started to take
this suburbanite
for longer trips – overnighters, even
weekends with the family,
soon I could not sleep
without Opiate
with me.

It was bliss – painless –
the catatonia inn’s
dilated grin
is always alight
and vacant.

But without
any feeling
the healing
itch
is not scratched.

III.

The sickness
that stole
my immunity
was gone.

But still
that hole
was filled
with
a vacuous hibernal
whose solstice
had its eye
on keeping me in its
shadow indefinitely.

It wasn’t Euphoria,
or Inspiration,
or Providence,
that broke me from
Opiate’s swaddle.

I could no more feel
these things than
a hurricane could feel
the frantic beating
of a bird’s’ wings.

The Why of
my sudden break-up
with Opiate
is unimportant
and honestly
unknown.
I searched
phlegmatically
for an answer I
never actually wanted.

Suddenly that
energy with so much
potential suppressed
by the receptive Opiate
became kinetic.

Then I felt everything.

IV.

Within
one cycle of the Moon
the low tides that I swam in
ebbed and I was crushed
against the rocks by a
set of spirit breakers

There I lay.
The beach?
I am not moving
but yet the sea is still drowning me, pulling me under
Where have I landed?
A Beach?
Refer to the checklist below:

Crippling Anxiety,
Square-knot stomach,,
White knuckles in a lightless void,
heat from a scream-filled pillow,
crippling anxiety,
pennies and seashells wafting from a bedside bucket,
colon tighter than a snare drum,
reality’s physical manifestations stacked like tinder and set aside are now set alight,
also crippling anxiety.
No, not a beach,
this is the place one comes back to
since breaching the chrysalis,
where life is re-met.

While my mind chanted for its sanity,
My body screamed
in this quarrelsome age
in an unfamiliar tongue,
aching, longing, for Opiate.

Unchristlike in all but this,
in three days I emerged reborn from under
the rock that I built from ashes
of churches with prescription pads
for hymnals and
Opiates for sacraments. ”

poem by Todd Schultz
Los Angeles, California
2015
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“They are not long, the weeping and the laughter,
Love and desire and hate:
I think they have no portion in us after
We pass the gate.

They are not long, the days of wine and roses:
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes
Within a dream.”

Horace

circa 50 B.C.E

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“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery – celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from – it’s where you take them to.”

Jim Jarmusch
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And so, we come to the end of another volume, once again…..
fade…..into silence…..